More Than Words
by LiquidLash
Summary: Jack followed Ianto’s jaw line upward and claimed his lips. “I know exactly what you mean,” he said mid-kiss. “It’s about trust too, though, isn’t it?”


Ianto felt annoyed. He'd had a long day chasing down reports and statements and receipts and now Jack was playing silly buggers and he'd had enough. So he said so.

"Jack. I do not appreciate this."

Jack continued to tie the blindfold and said in a sing-song voice, "But you will do later!"

"I really don't think I will," Ianto mumbled as he was pulled shakily to his feet, clinging to Jack for support. "Where are we going?"

"It's a surprise. That's what blindfolds are for. Don't be a spoilsport."

Several floors and many corners later, so many that Ianto felt as if he wasn't even in Wales anymore, Jack pulled him to a halt.

"Can I take this off yet?" Ianto reached up to pull at the cloth but Jack's hands tethered his to his sides. "Apparently not." A strange smell met Ianto's nostrils and he paused, trying to identify it. "Where are we, Jack?"

Jack Harkness didn't respond. His hands went instead to the knot on Ianto's blindfold and Ianto relaxed, thinking his troubles were over.

They had only just begun.

Jack's touch disappeared yet the cloth covering Ianto's eyes remained. He'd had enough now. Ianto didn't care what plans Jack had, the blindfold stuff was finished.

Except he couldn't get it undone. "Jack? Jack, what have you done?" His fingers scrabbled at the now tighter, more impenetrable knot and he swore. "Jack!"

"Lighten up!" Ianto heard Jack say. It sounded like he was far away. Feeling idiotic, Ianto outstretched his arms, hoping to find something or someone to support him.

"I'm going to kill you for this, just so you know," Ianto said, polite as if he were offering coffee.

"Finders keepers," Jack replied. Ianto could hear the swishing of his coat has he weaved through Ianto's blind, groping grip.

"Jack, I've spent all day doing your bloody paperwork. Stop playing games!" It was an understatement to say that Ianto was getting annoyed, Jack could tell.

"It's just a few steps, come on, this way..." Jack couldn't help but smile at Ianto's feeble attempts to find him. "Now," Jack whispered somewhere near Ianto's ear. "Put your hands out."

"What if I don't feel like it?"

"What if I leave you down here? You won't get that blindfold off. Stick out your hands."

Ianto gave in. His trembling fingers reached across the empty space, and when they touched the cool grit of concrete he gasped. Ianto felt rather than heard Jack come up behind him, intent on crushing him against the wall in what Jack probably would have considered a playful gesture. The Welshman span and fell back another section of the wall, hearing the thud as Jack collided with concrete.

Jack chuckled, though the sound was muted because he was holding onto his now quite sore nose. "Slippery thing, aintcha?"

"You would know, sir. You would know," Ianto commented, feeling his way along the wall, searching for a door or anything that could help him escape from the mad clutches of a Jack-who-thinks-he-is-having-fun.

Ianto's fingers touched a light switch, and he grinned. Jack grappled in the consequent darkness. "Ianto? What have you done?"

"Just evened the playing field, sir." Ianto could hear Jack somewhere close behind him and so he followed the wall away again. He heard Jack reach the light switch and attempt to turn it back on.

"You've broken it!"

"Must have been faulty, sir. I have been mentioning those repairs for quite some time," Ianto said reproachfully.

"Come here," Jack growled, his own hands flailing in the gloom. "When I get my hands on you..."

Ianto felt the edge of Jack's coat brush his fingertips and froze. Jack didn't appear to have noticed their proximity. Tiptoeing and leaning across, Ianto raised his lips to where he hoped Jack's ear was and whispered, "You'll what, Captain?"

Barely concealing a giggle as Jack gasped in surprise, Ianto backed away again, trying not to stumble in the dark. Falling over now would ruin everything.

Then Jack's hand found his tie and Ianto just about managed to say a quick "Bugger" before he was trapped in the Captain's arms.

"Gotcha."

"Oh, so now it's your turn to wear the blindfold and be lead down god knows how many corridors for a quick fondle in the dark?"

"No," Jack said, moving them back against one of the walls. Ianto felt cold concrete brush his neck. "Now I think it might be time for the quick fondle. Take off your tie."

Ianto pouted in the gloom, removing the strip of silk and handing it over."You don't play fair."

"Never said I did. Practically famed for not doing so, remember?" Jack's lips ghosted over the skin of Ianto's neck. He'd been aiming for the lips, but neck was good. "I can take the blindfold off, if you want," he told Ianto's goose bumped flesh. Jack grinned a predatorial smile as Ianto gave his head a quick shake.

"Er, not just yet?"

"Grown a liking for it, have we?"

"Don't sound so damned smug, Jack."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Jack said, nipped at the bottom of Ianto's earlobe.

A moment of reflective and teasing silence passed. Jack took Ianto's hands and held them against the wall above their heads. He felt Ianto give in, felt him relax, and then moved to the other side of the Welshman's neck.

"It's like a comforting dark, if that makes sense," Ianto murmured into Jack's hair. "Different to just being _in_ the dark."

Jack followed Ianto's jaw line upward and claimed his lips. "I know exactly what you mean," he said mid-kiss. "It's about trust too, though, isn't it?"

"Yeah..."

"Do you trust me?"

"Yes."

"I really am glad you said that. Gives me leave to do this." Before Ianto could react, protest or struggle, Jack had tied his wrists together with his own tie. On reflection, Ianto really ought to have seen this coming.

"Come on, Jack, isn't the blindfold enough?"

"Now that you mention it, no, no it isn't. And I thought you said you trusted me."

"Beginning to regret that now..."

"Humph. Alright, tell me what you did to the light switch, and I'll let you go," Jack bargained.

Ianto snorted. "I'm meant to believe that, am I?"

"Perhaps." Ianto could hear the grin in his voice.

"How do I know you'll keep your word?"

"You'll just have to trust me," Jack said in that sing-song voice he had used earlier. "I solemnly swear that I will untie you once you tell me how to fix the switch. Better?"

"A little." Ianto sighed, giving in and saying, "I only pulled out the flicky thing, no harm done. It's in my hand, see?"

Jack chuckled. Ianto felt the sound resonate through him. "Not really, no," he said, following the line of Ianto's arm up to his clenched fists. "You going to let go now?"

The question had two meanings, if Ianto thought about it. When he nodded, he realised he was saying yes to both.

Jack's questing fingers found the 'flicky thing' in Ianto's palm. "Thanks, Yan," he said, his body disappearing from Ianto's, leaving the other man feeling confusingly bereft.

"You had your fingers crossed the whole time, didn't you?" Ianto called across the room. He heard a click as the switch was fixed, then Jack said, "Yep."

"So I'm screwed now, right?"

"Yep."

"Right," said Ianto. "Always good to know."

Jack walked back to where Ianto leaned against the wall, arms trapped above his head. Ianto heard the rustling of his coat as he took it off and asked, "Won't you get cold?"

Ianto felt Jack's finger drift up and down his chest, toying with the buttons of his shirt, making him shiver. "I'd be more worried about yourself, if I were you," Jack whispered and Ianto shivered again. The older man's touch vanished for a second as he bent to take something from one of his coat pockets. Tracing Ianto's jaw with one hand, he said, "Open your mouth."

"You need new lines, sir."

"Hey," Jack protested, flicking Ianto's temple lightly. "My lines are fantastic. Some of them are so old they're retro, don't go knocking them."

"Wouldn't dream of it, sir."

"Good." Ianto could feel Jack smiling, he wasn't sure of how, but he could sense the contentment emanating from the other man. "Now open your mouth."

Ianto sighed and let his jaw drop a little.

"Wider," Jack commanded. "Come on, Yan."

"I'm going to make you pay for this later," Ianto said, opening his mouth fully.

"Oh, I'm counting on that." Ianto felt something solid brush his lips as Jack continued, "I really really am." Jack's fingers lightly touched Ianto's tongue and he deposited the tiny object. Taste flooded Ianto's mouth as the small hunk of dark chocolate began to melt. Jack continued to trace Ianto's features, letting his fingers linger under Ianto's nose. The rich smell of cocoa flooded his nostrils and Ianto let out a whimper.

"Do you like that?"

Ianto whimpered again, not able to talk around the chocolate.

"Honestly, Ianto, you're so messy, it's dribbling down your chin..."

Ianto made a noise which, somehow, seemed to make clear that Ianto did not at all appreciate the comment about messiness. Not one bit. But then Jack's tongue flicked out his tongue to catch a bead of molten chocolate at the corner of Ianto's mouth and Ianto forgot everything else, surrendering to the sensation.

Attempting to speak with a mouth full of intoxicating rich sweetness while someone licked your lips into oblivion, Ianto found, was quite impossible. He had to wait for Jack to stop for one second, and for himself to push the chocolate to the roof of his mouth, before he could croak out, "You are impossible."

"Didn't quite catch that, love."

Ianto growled, the sound low and – in some indescribable way – chocolaty. "I said," he repeated, "that you are impossible."

"Am I indeed?" Jack asked, licking at Ianto's lips again, slowly moving his tongue inside, following the trail of molten chocolate and saliva. Ianto moaned against the insistent probing of Jack's tongue as it swept his mouth, the action both infuriating and exciting. Ianto felt his knees go weak; Jack's taste coupled with the heady cocoa was almost too much.

He wanted more.

Ianto lowering his bound wrists over Jack's head, trapping the man in a cage of arms. He deepened the kiss, pulling Jack even closer and being crushed against the wall in return.

"Too hot," Ianto gasped.

Jack grinned into the kiss, their teeth bumping together. "You aren't so bad yourself."

"No, I mean—"

Jack shushed him. "Yeah, I know what you meant. Want to take off your jacket?" he asked, innocent as only Jack could be having tied someone up against a wall.

"Do _you_ want to take off my jacket?"

"Yes please." Jack reached up to Ianto's bound wrists. "Promise not to make good your escape?"

"Oh, you mean like your promises?" Ianto offered.

"Silence, bad monkey. Don't you want to be untied?"

Ianto didn't answer.

"You don't!" Jack gave a whooping laugh. "You love it really, I knew it!"

Ignoring this outburst, Ianto said, "Am I taking this jacket off or not, sir?"

"Oh, alright, fine." Jack undid the tie and moved Ianto forward to slip the blazer down his arms, fingers lingering and teasing at the man's inner elbows. "D'you want to like, roll up your sleeves?"

Ianto's withering look with its raised eyebrow was somehow apparent through the blindfold although it really shouldn't have been.

"Jeez, so picky. Fine, scratch that and reverse it, or whatever that line was. I _want_ you to roll your sleeves up."

"You could have just said." Ianto took off his cufflinks, sliding them into his trouser pocket, and began to work on his sleeves.

"Could have just said," Jack mimicked, earning a twitch at the corner of Ianto's mouth. "Stop, stop, that's enough." His hands went out to stop Ianto's.

"Well, I can't tell," Ianto pointed out.

"I know you can't," said Jack. "Hence the whole stopping you thing." Jack brought Ianto's hands together again, producing the tie and letting its silken edge drag roughly against the back of Ianto's palms. "So," he murmured, "want me to re-tie this?"

Ianto appeared to consider this. His silence, his lack of answer, went on for so long that Jack got worried. "Yan?"

"Go on then, might as well," the other man sighed. "Just not above the head; I like the feeling of blood in my hands."

"What, really?"

"Yeah, I know. It's mad." Ianto twisted his hands, feeling the tie run between his fingers. "Really quite—" He traced the stripes in the weave and letting his mind wander. "Really quite mad," he finished. The silk felt both warm and cool to his touch; he didn't want to let it go.

It represented more.

"Ianto?" Jack asked, concerned.

Ianto didn't raise his blind eyes from the tie. "Mmm?"

Jack's fingers touched his chin, tilting his head up and laying a gentle peck on his lips. "You want this?" Jack was _asking_ more.

"I want this."

Everything felt like it carried more value in this dark, heightened state, Ianto reflected. Contact felt like more than just touch, words felt more than their worth; Jack seemed more than _just _Jack.

He was more.

"I want this," Ianto repeated, offering up the tie to where he thought Jack's hands were. Jack took it and recaptured Ianto's wrists as slowly as he could, giving the younger man every chance to back out.

He did not.

"Good," said Jack. "I'm glad."

A hint of a smirk twitched its way across Ianto's mouth and Jack's lips followed it. Ianto managed to get out a sarcastic "I'll bet you are" before Jack took possession of him so deeply that he forgot his words and his troubles again.

In all his darkness, in all his strife, Ianto had found an anchor in Jack. The blindfold and the tie: it all meant so much more to him than he would ever let on.

He hoped Jack knew. He really did.

* * *

**Author Note:** the first part of this one-shot was written in collaberation with a friend of mine. Everything from "Put your hand out" really was just an accident because those damned plot-bunnies do like to plague me so... please review, it makes me as happy as a dark chocolate covered— ahem. Well. Yes. Review?


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